The Dutch on course

Highlights from the Netherlands vs Denmark match at the Soccer city stadium, which the men in orange won 2-0:

* Denmark have not beaten the Netherlands since 1967. 43 years and the counting goes on.

* Typical Dutch game. After a slow first half, L’Oranjes lit up the second half with maximum possession and pressurised the Danish defenders, creating an own goal en route.

* Strong bench strength for the Dutch. Elijero Elia, who was instrumental in the Kuyt goal, and Ibrahim Afellay, who almost scored his first goal in the orange shirt came on as substitutes in the second half, and were brilliant. Plus Robben, Huntelaar, Babel didn’t come on.It shows the depth the Dutch squad has.

* Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong were stand out performers, anchoring the midfield. Teams will find it hard to get past them and breach into the Dutch defence.

* Wesley Sneijder delivered a man-of-the-match performance with his typical visionary passing, setting up the Kuyt goal.

* In the Nike WC ad, Cannavaro makes an acrobatic save off Drogba to save his country the blushes and becomes a national hero. Simon Paulsen produced a similar acrobatic save off Afellay. But his own goal was what really kicked off proceedings in the second half. There’s no redemption from that. Bottomline : Nike won the war of the brands over Adidas here.

* 2-0 may seem a paltry scoreline for the attacking quality of the Dutch. But as Ruud Gullit said, teams that start slow go on to win World cups. The flying Dutch have not gotten off to a flying start, but have bagged 3 crucial points. They are yet to reveal their true hand, which they will by unleashing Robben.